More Miracles
by littleblackneko
Summary: A Sudden emergency causes everyone one to rethink their lives. Have they acheived their purposes? And why is Robin so nervous about the outcome of Barney's stroke? Barney/Robin with small amounts of Marshall/Lily and Ted/Mother.
1. Chapter 1

Ted POV

The room smelled of disinfectant and death as we sat anxiously awaiting the results. The E.R. was causing me to feel extremely claustrophobic, mainly because I have had the feeling like walls were closing in on me ever since I got the phone call. The words rang loud in my mind, giving me a migraine.

3hrs earlier

_I was walking home from my architecture class when my phone started ringing loud with the song 'Hey Beautiful'. I had no idea what the number was but I answered anyway. _

_ "Hello?" I asked into the receiver._

_ A nasal, monotone voice replied, "Are you Theodore Moseby?" I gave her a yes in reply and she continued, "This is the Manhattan Medical Hospital Emergency Room. You have been listed as the primary contact for a Mr. Barnaby Stinson. He's been hospitalized for a seizure- induced stroke and has fallen into a coma." _

_ "Oh my gosh, thank you! I'll be down there right away!" Quickly, I notified Robin, Marshall and Lily, who rushed down in the same panicked frenzy as I had._

And that brings us to now. We were waiting for the test results that would tell us many things. Things like if any section of his body was damaged, how long had he been out before the medics hauled him away, and overall, the most important and frightening question, would Barney live?

Epilepsy? How were we supposed to know that Barney had epilepsy? There had never been any signs beside the fact that he spaced out a lot. We all had pretty much linked that to his A.D.D. Everyone had the question on their mind, the one that you try desperately try not to think, but always end up thinking anyway. Is this my fault? If only I'd been there, if I'd only seen the signs, maybe he'd be okay. The last time any of us had seen him was about 12 hours ago. He could have been laying there for 12 hours on his living room floor with no way to get help. Cut off from the world and practically dying.

All of us had been here well over half an hour and we're all trying to cope with the panic in different ways. I had become fascinated with the loose threads on my jeans. Twisting the strings up and down my inner thumbs, wrapping them together and unraveling them again. Like my jeans were the whole world and instead of a 30-something friend of a comatose hospital patient, I was a kindergartener alone on the playground at recess. That's how vulnerable I felt, like my age and wisdom had been sucked into a vortex.

Lily wasn't doing much better. She was walking around the E.R. lobby trying to make small talk with everyone, trying to put on a brave face that was really easy to see through. Every 7 minutes, she would lap around to the bathroom, and if you put your ear to the door, you could hear muffled sobbing. Her best friend, the one she wasn't married to, the one that came to her for everything, was facing a life and death situation. But she had to try and act like if the 15 year old burnout waiting for news about his dad thought the weather had been nice lately too, Barney would be ok.

Marshall was the most entertaining from the outside but inside, little devils were sprinkling petunias over his brain and laughing at his pain. _Thump! _ Went his foot as it once again banged on the lobby's vending machine. Nothing was stuck, broke, or being broken. Just anger. Rage was boiling inside as he continued beating up the vending machine, releasing it all like it was this electronic machine's fault. Stealing money and causing seizures. _Thump! _ That snack producing machine from hell deserved it.

Robin was subtly the worst. She was pacing back and forth muttering under her breath, "No, no, this isn't happening," over and over again with fists wedged in balls in her jegging back pockets. You could feel the tense vibes emanating from her body. It was understandable that she would be upset, they are really close, but none of us really knew just how badly she was hurting and how panicked and nervous she really was. None of could possibly know how she was feeling unless we knew what was on her finger on one of the hands in her pocket. The thing that was right threatening to rip through and poke a little outline in her upper thigh. None of us could know how she was feeling unless we knew that sneakily hidden from us the past three days was a polished shining ring.

_**Hope you enjoyed! Please R&R :)**_


	2. Chapter 2

More Miracles Chapter 2

About an hour passed before a doctor, Fred, stepped out and tracked me down, unfortunately looking very solemn.

"Mr. Moseby?" he asked, tapping me on the shoulder, "the results are in about your friend." I looked at him anxiously at him and waved Marshall, Robin, and Lily over and they hurriedly rushed towards me. The doctor, seeing the group assembled, continued, "when you found him at 11, he had been out for about three hours with no blood flow to the brain. The scans have shown there was no damage to the internal body structure, but the condition is critical. We have determined that if Mr. Stinson wakes up within the next 24 hours, he should return normal with no side effects. If he wakes up between 24 and 48 hours, there may be some permanent brain damage. Sadly, if your friend doesn't wake up within 48 hours he probably never will."

I felt like collapsing onto the ground and never standing up again, and Lily was already tearing up. No, no he can't _die_. Then I pivoted to see Robin walking quickly away to an area where she couldn't be seen, because her façade was quickly fading. I followed her, to try and comfort my friend. We were all now worried and sad. The deal was supposed to be 'he's up and running and everything is fine' not 'he might die!' When I finally got to Robin, I could see the silent tears were already streaming down her face, scrunched in the corner of the entryway.

I slid down next to her and wrapped my arm around her shoulder, trying not to look at Robin's face so that I could stay strong for her. None of us believed that this could happen, and we would later find out this was so much worse for her.

"Robin, none of us wanted this to happen… and as much as we want to blame ourselves, even Barney had no idea he had epilepsy."

"I'm sorry Ted, but you just don't get it," her puffy, slowly dripping eyes pierced into mine, making me want to hold her and never let go. This wasn't supposed to happen; wasn't the plan. I understood that much.

I looked over to see Dr. Fred Charles gesturing us over to the doors that led into the wards. I helped Robin stand up and we led her over there to get whatever news may be coming. Hopefully the second round of news wasn't as horrible as the first bout. "I just wanted to say you guys would be able to come see your friend, even though he hasn't woken up yet," the doctor told us, "Technically, it shouldn't be allowed, but I'll say your family. You seem like you are as close as that." If you looked closely, you could see Robin giving a sarcastic roll of the eyes, but I didn't have any idea what it meant. Not yet, I didn't.

We slowly paced into the room and could immediately understand what all the doctor chatter was about. It was obvious to see that this had been fatal. Our friend, practically our brother, had no color to his aura. His face had gone ghostly white and his skin looked pale and frigid, except there was a hug purple bruise across his forehead where he must have fallen and hit it. Almost like there was no chance of survival, crushing our hopes like a tiny wine grape. Still in disbelief, this couldn't possibly be happening, not to Barney Stinson. I could feel the salty tears forming in my eyes. All of us were either crying our eyes out (Lily), looking away from the group with quiet drops falling down the face (Robin), or trying to stay strong for the criers even though the water was being pushed up to the bridge of our eyes, threatening to fall out (Marshall and I).

It had been 13 of the 24 hours taken up for our friend to be his normal, fun-loving self again. It was 4am, long past the end of visiting hours, but none of us had any intention of even leaving the room. Whether laying on the padded bench or slumped over in a chair trying as hard as possible to win the battle against sleep, and not succeeding.

I was awakened 3 hours later to a whispered "Oh my gosh" and my eyes slowly fluttered open, taking a few seconds for my sleep-deprived brain to try and comprehend what I was seeing. He was awake. He was really awake…

Looking at Barney, he appeared more half-stoned than anything, but that was probably just from the grogginess. I read that was one of the aftereffects of seizures and strokes, of which he had somewhat experienced both simultaneously, and beside the fact had been unconscious for the past 20 hours in total. His dark blonde hair was crumpled in the back and his sharp baby blue eyes were half-closed. And then I did a double take on one crucial detail I missed on the look-over, because of my own exhaustion. He was kissing Robin.

Wait, what? Was I still dreaming, was this the crazy antibacterial and latex glove smells getting to my common sense. I reached over and inconspicuously pinched my shoulder, and let out a small wince. My eyes discreetly darted back and forth, making sure that I hadn't been caught. It took a couple of seconds before the mindset came in that this was reality.

"Where am I? What happened?" I heard him ask in a slow, barely audible whisper to the girl who was lying by the side of him with a warm smile on her face.

"Honey, you've been in a coma for the past 20 hours. You had a seizure-induced stroke and you nearly died." Her voice cracked near the end as she pulled him into a gentle embrace.

"Now we couldn't have that happen. It would ruin our awesome, legendary plan." This was weird. It as if I was living inside of a movie. Like these were total strangers talking.

"And what would that plan be?" I finally intervened, causing both heads to jolt to where I was now sitting upright, and I gave a small, sarcastically innocent, wave. Both looked like they had an answer that they couldn't give me yet. To move things along, I shook Marshall and Lily so that they were awake too. "Hey guys," I told them as they slowly sat up, evidently not happy they had been woken. Boy if looks could kill… oh wait, Lily's can. I'd better watch out.

"What is it Ted?" Marshall moaned.

"Guys, Barney's up…"


	3. Chapter 3

**THIS IS SET AT LIKE THE END OF SEASON 7**

_I don't deserve to tell you that I love you  
>There's nothing in this world I'd take above you<br>I'm dead inside  
>Bring me back to life<br>It's never too late to show you who I am  
>I know you want to love me<br>I know you understand that I could be your missing page_

_Never Too Late- Secondhand Serenade_

More Miracles Ch.3- Discovery

"Oh thank God!" Lily whisper shouted as she rushed over and hugged him around the neck. It took Marshall a few moments to wake up before the sparks of excitement lit up his face as well. And I just sat there grinning at my newfound knowledge. Though I wasn't quite sure what it meant. Were sparks just reenacted because of the emergency? Had they been going out behind our backs? Was it something more?

Everyone was quite happy he was alive and well, and a couple of minutes later a doctor stopped in to check up and was relieved to see him awake and communicating with us. Dr. Fred Charles gave us some pamphlets too, about epileptic seizure prevention, how to avoid it, reducing frequency, the signs, et cetera. A lot of the things were a little shocking, like that alcoholics shouldn't reduce how much they drink because lower alcohol levels in their blood is a huge trigger, and others were the kind of stuff you'd expect to see, like that's it's a trigger to 'eat sandwiches.'

Finally my thoughts stopped and I could zone back into the rejoicing. "So epilepsy?" Barney was saying, starting to sound ungroggy, "That's was unexpected. It seriously seems to me that 3 minutes ago I was sitting on my couch watching Field of Dreams and now I'm…"

His voice trailed off as something caught my eye. The bright fluorescent lights had carried over into this bedroom and were shining down on all of us making us look yellow. Also the light wafted down and set off a sharp shine upon something… on Robin's finger?

Okay, if I was reading these signs right, things were being pieced together and I was confused still. But if I was reading this wrong, well then I was very, _very _confused. But engagement? That didn't make sense, especially since we hadn't even known there was a relationship _and_ were the most gamophobic people ever, meaning afraid of marriage. Gah, I really do have obnoxiously douchey intelligence.

Okay, back to the topic. Marriage? The very word just didn't seem right for either of them, yet glancing around I could tell I was not the only one that was being blinded by the glistening gem on display. Robin noticed quickly after and tried to nonchalantly slide it behind her back and dispose of the evidence. I had definitely read the signals right, and suddenly everything clicked into place. Why Robin was so worried. Why she broke into tears in the lobby and said I 'didn't get it.' Barney's her fiancé, and it must be a pretty amazing relationship, considering, as I had learned from experience, her former strict no- marriage- and- kids policy. And it had been near death, touch- and- go, anyone in that situation would be scared out of their minds.

"Um, Robin, what's with the ring?" Lily was asking.

"What ring?" Robin said with firm faux denial planted on her face as she inconspicuously was trying to pry said ring off.

Then Barney leaned up and whispered something along the lines of, "Maybe we should just tell them." She looked at him, lingered on his face for a moment, and nodded. "Well, um" he started nervously, "It was right after the Arcadian about a year ago, and there was the whole light bulb/ Zoey thing, well later on Robin and I ran into Nora, you know. Well I went out for coffee with her and it turns out, she has a serious boyfriend and was _really_ not kidding about cussing me out, but we left on good terms. Still don't know what a yarō is… Well anyways, we ended up starting to go out, me and Robin, but we didn't want you guys to know yet, and evidently succeeded in keeping it a secret. So three nights ago, I had it all planned. So I sent Lily tickets to a kindergartener teaching convention to go to with Marshall, and Ted you got that invite to that dumb architecture convention, that somehow costs money. When you were all gone we went to the Canucks/ Blackhawks game and-"

"I knew that huge thing of cotton candy had nothing to do with Marshall's midlife crisis!" I cut in.

"My what?" Marshall asked.

"Well, dude, ever since Jason was born, you've seemed to be really cranky and needy."

"Ted, that's called I've gotten no sleep in the past three months."

"Yeah," Lily added, "it's been rough, and that's why I'm so glad he's been able to stay with Marshall's family for the week." "But if they dare give that kid mayonnaise," she muttered under her breath, "Enough about this though, get back to the story! It's cute to see you two all wistful and romantic."

"Well he did that thing where you put on the display board, and I almost missed it, and then here we are."

A couple of minutes later, the doctor came in to discuss treatment options. "Well, from what you've told me, he has absence, or petit mal, seizures but what led to the stroke must have been a tonic- clonic seizure, the kind where the person rolls on the ground. Your friend has serious epilepsy, but it seems too soon to do surgery. Based on the conditions, I'm going to prescribe Zarontin, a 250 milligram pill that will treat both kinds of seizures, and it's very important that he not skip doses or he'll be at risk for severe seizures, especially since, not uncommonly, his conditions have been escalating. Now, like all medicines, there are side effects including unusual bleeding, easy bruising, depression, and most importantly there have been instances where people will literally hear voices. If any side affects occur, stop taking the medicine and contact me, his epitologist, immediately."

When I returned to the conversation everyone was chatting happily about the wedding that was to come, they said, at the end of May, 2013. Lily was to be the matron of honor, and I was a little surprised when I was asked to be best man, considering I was Robin's ex. Though as Barney put it, "Bro, if you hadn't wanted to nail her, we wouldn't have met each other, and all this wouldn't have happened." Since Stuart and his wife had kids, so their son Matthew would be the ring boy and their daughter Virginia would be the flower girl.

During this conversation, a nurse walked into the room, holding her clipboard. "Excuse everyone, but we have a visitor. A mister Jerome Whittaker…"

**A: N/ The Tonys are June 12 at 7pm eastern hosted by Neil Patrick Harris! (I already have a timer set) this chapter took some research so yes, those are triggers of seizures. Yes, Zarontin is a real seizure medicine, and yes those are real side effects of it. Yarō is Japanese for a**hole. Can anyone guess how I picked the names of Jason, Matthew, and Virginia (Marshall & Lily's kid and Stuart and Claudia's kids)? Please review and I hope you enjoyed this chapter!**


	4. Chapter 4

Ch.4

Slowly but surely Jerry paced into the hospital room, squinting because his eyes still hadn't adjusted to the lighting. He walked down and rested in the chair next to me, a firm scent of freshly trimmed grass attacking my nostrils. The grass stains on his long old-manish khakis suggested he most likely was out playing with J.J.

"So, wow," Jerry was saying, "no one had any idea this would happen, did they?" The words made me grimace. Overall, speaking on its own would have been a sweet gesture if not each word was soaked with the uncomfortable feelings of the situation, obvious that he was only here as an obligation to try and bond with his 'neglected' son, and Barney's face made it clear that he wanted no such favors.

A smile and dimpled cheeks tried to make happiness, but the creases next to Barney's eyes suggested another story that played out quite clearly to an understanding friend. Layer 1: you're my dad so I should be oh so happy that you came and took time to see me Layer 2: from playing with the son you actually care about and didn't abandon Layer 3 to actually show that you truly care about me as a human being. Who knew that one guy could open the door from unlayered to an utterly complex human being? And it pissed me off.

Why is it _this_ guy that can make Barney feel anger, abandonment, but still a little hope? I wouldn't be so mad if not for the fact that the guy didn't seem to care and truly wanted to be gone; all the while the blonde in the hospital gown was racking his brain for perfect words to make perfect conversation with someone who had left him with a hole in his heart at 6. Someone whose approval is craved so badly but doesn't really want to be here.

So of course I would be infuriated. Things were going so well, especially with the engagement and everything. Why did Jerry feel the need to come here if he didn't want to and have it proven to Barney that he was second fiddle to this whole family he wasn't part of.

"Oh, did you hear about the enga-" Marshall began to declare before being Lily flashed him a small fraction of one of her death glares. I knew what she was thinking because I had the same thought in mind. Both Robin and Barney had problems with their fathers in the past that had yet to be resolved. Who's to say that word of a wedding would ever reach their ears?

An awkward silence settled over the room, the kind where you just want to burst out singing to get rid of the quiet. Jerry knew that something was being kept from him but, like his son, was far too stubborn to even think of asking what. After we had been sitting there for like 2 minutes and the stillness was becoming unbearable. "Hey little sister what have you done…" Everyone's heads jerked over to Marshall, who was now quietly singing 'white wedding' to himself.

"Hey little sister, who's the only one," Barney joined in, smiling.

"Hey little sister, who's your superman," I added. Say what you want about Marshall, he does know how to ease the tension.

The 5 of us, alternating lines, finished the song, as Jerry lay back in his chair, before standing up, stretching his back, and declaring, "Well, I best be going, I've got a basketball game to get to." I tried my best to keep my ears from turning red.

A few minutes after his dad's departure, Barney's nurse walked in, a young Japanese woman whose nametag stated that she was Akira and would be happy to serve you. "Mr. Stinson, you are free to be discharged. Just make sure to sign out and pick up your prescriptions at reception." Robin latched onto his hand to help him stand up, as Barney's eyes vied for something more comfortable to put on. Just as he had locked on to Marshall's nice suit, I held up his own from the chair where it was laying.

We stumbled slowly out of urgent care, stopping at the front desk. As we stepped outside everyone aside from Robin and I realized it was raining. We just smirked and flipped open umbrellas, mine a bright yellow, matching the color of the one I had left at Cindy's. Robin had the news anchor job (which featured a weather forecast) and I had late night insomnia that was causing me to watch the 4am news and weather to thank for the heads up. For this wasn't light rain. It was crazy, heavy, loud rain that would have shell-shocked war veterans crying "it's an ambush!"

""No! This is silk!" Barney cried as he haphazardly ran to a car whose whereabouts were unknown to him. Just as he was about to topple over, Marshall latched onto his arm while Barney moaned about how he _just _had this dry-cleaned.

The whole situation would have been funny if i didn't have one thought running through my mind. 'Barney and Robin are getting married. _Barney _and _Robin _of all people. I'm the one who has been on a soul searching journey for a wife, so where is she?'

When we finally arrived at Barney's apartment, the door opened to a wretched scent of rotten milk flooding the airwaves. The finished tape of Field of Dreams was sticking out of the player, the tape he recalled watching the day of the stroke. Looking at his answering machine, the display screen read _1 new message from James. _Barney clicked the voicemail button and his brother's voice filled the room.

_"Hey, bro. Heard you were in the hospital? Sounds serious. Anyway, Tom, Eli and I are going to be staying a couple blocks down from you for a while our place is under renovation. Call me back. _

Robin and Barney settled down next to each other on the couch as she rested her head on his shoulder. She looked up at him with eyes he thought belonged on magazine covers, "So now that you're okay, how about we start planning our wedding?" 

**Sorry this update took forever, I haven't had access to a computer. Does anyone know where Virginia and Matthew came from yet? If not, go to the wikia for himym and look up Stuart and Claudia. Until next time! ~LBN. **


End file.
